The Sweetest Thing - part 6

Veronique’s Easy Chocolate Cake

Everyone loves chocolate.  Everyone loves easy.  Everyone loves cake and everyone loves Veronique!  Veronique is such a sweet and serene person.  Having a Mauritius background Veronique often creates exotic and enticing dishes that we all want the recipe for. 

Being a new mum Veronique has decided to give us her favorite easy chocolate cake recipe.  Juggling a baby and baking requires simplicity.  This cake is perfect for those days when you need a chocolate fix or you have friends coming over for a cuppa.

This recipe makes a big cake (oven dish size) or two regular cakes (regular cake tin size).

What you need;

2 cups of water
3 cups of sugar
½ cup of good quality cocoa
3 cups of self-raising flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
250 grams of butter
4 large eggs beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or a fresh pod added to the pot)
1 block of dark chocolate

What you do;

Grease and line dish/tins with baking paper.

Combine water, sugar, cocoa, vanilla, chocolate, butter and bicarbonate of soda in a tall pot.  Stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil then turn down heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Take the mixture off the stove and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Whisk in sifted flour. Add beaten eggs. Pour mixture into dish/tins. Cook at 180 degrees for approximately 1 hour or until cooked.

Ice and eat!

Thank you Veronique.  Enjoy!

The Sweetest Thing - Part 4

Rachael’s Apple Crumble

This winter weather has me craving for yummy warm desserts.  Apple Crumble has to be a favourite of almost everybody.  I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like it.  Here is Rachael’s "sweetest thing" favourite for the series. I was quite surprised by Rachael’s choice as she has become very well known in baking circles for her Lemon Slice – it’s almost world famous!  Maybe she will let me share that with you one day.

But for now this Apple Crumble is a family recipe handed down from her mum, who can't quite recall the exact origins of how it came about.  My guess is it is one of those authentic traditional recipes that has been around forever and a day passed on from generation to generation.  Delightful, delicious and you definitely need to make it this weekend.

What you need;

4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup processed oat bran or multi bran cereal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
60 grams butter
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 tablespoon sunflower seeds

What you do;

Stew* apples until soft.  Place into ovenproof dish.

Combine sugar and mixed spice and mix into apples. 

In a food processor, combine oats, bran, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. Process until mixed to a crumble.  Add almonds and sunflower seeds and mix well.

Sprinkle crumble topping over apples, pressing mixture lightly together.

Bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes.

To complete this "sweetest thing" I would serve warm with a massive scoop of vanilla ice cream and a dollop of thickened cream – preferable double thick!  So naughty.

Thanks Rach.  Enjoy Friends. Xx

*To stew apples - peel and chop apples, put them in a pot add a little water and leave them on a medium/low heat, keep an eye on them so the pan does not boil dry.  If you would like some extra sweetness mix both cooking and eating apples.

The Sweetest Thing – Part 4 of 9

Copyright foodforyoureviews 2012

The Sweetest Thing

I am very fortunate to have a group of beautiful women in my family; most of them have quite a sweet tooth and all of them have a sweet personality.  They are all great cooks and very passionate about food – particularly sweets.  I don’t think I am exaggerating when I tell you this – I have never seen a group of women get so excited about cakes, slices, desserts, in fact anything sweet. I would go as far to say that in my opinion one of their favourite things to do would be to have some cake with a strong cup of tea over a chat with each other.  It is something that I get much enjoyment from watching.  I myself don’t share the same passion for sweet as I am more at one with savoury, however I love food and one of the main things that I love about food is how it brings people together and bonds them in such an ordinary and seamless way.

At our family gatherings there are many of us and it’s growing each year.  The dessert table is always the one with the most dishes on it and it gets the most amount of attention. It is the one that provides the shrieks of happiness. I am always waiting with much interest to see who has made what this time – an old favourite or has someone been experimenting with something new since we last met?  There was even one Christmas when my brother in law and his wife had a ‘trifle off’.  Each thought they had the best trifle recipe.  A panel of judges was assembled from within the family to determine who had made the best trifle. It was a tough contest but of course the sweet lady was triumphant.

Each of the girls has their speciality, possibly more than one. But they have mastered each one with patience, passion and a desire to share with those that they love.  That’s the thing – the sweetest thing, that no matter why or when, food is always the one thing that threads people together.  For happy times, sad times, difficult times, celebration times, family and friends come together and share their food and it becomes the fundamental point of the gathering.  It is the easiest way to express your condolences or your delight without a spoken word. You can just hand over a baked good and the other person knows exactly what you are trying to say.

So this love or near obsession for all things sweet that the lovely ladies in my family have, has prompted me to ask them to share their number one sweet recipe with me so I could share it with you.  It was not easy for some of them to choose just one.  Although this was to be expected!

Over the next few months one by one I will share each recipe with you to try.  In the meantime here is the list of number ones and the first recipe that I will share with you. If you do try one I would love your feedback.

·         Sue’s Golden Dumplings
·         Angela’s Butterscotch Pudding
·         Fiona’s Hazelnut Slice
·         Marita’s Trifle
·         Keely’s Peach and Raspberry Tart
·         Jess’s Fruit & Custard Tart
·         Veronique’s Easy Chocolate Cake
·         Rachael’s Apple Crumble
·         Amanda’s Caramel Butternut Snap Cups

The Sweetest Thing - part 1; Sue’s Golden Dumplings

This is one of Sue’s favourite sweets recipe.  It’s loved by many in the family.

What you need –

DUMPLINGS

1 cup self raising flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
A little milk

SAUCE
1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 tablespoon butter

What you do –

Place sauce ingredients in pan and heat.

Rub butter into flour, stir in egg and enough milk to make a fairly stiff dough. Roll into little balls and drop into the boiling syrup for about 5 - 10 minutes.

Sue usually doubles the sauce.

THANK YOU SUE.  Enjoy everyone!

Sue found this recipe in the NMAA COOKS RECIPES FOR BUSY MOTHERS COMPILED BY NURSING MOTHERS' ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA